Customer Reviews

Getting Lucky (Leisure Historical Romance)

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In 1849 a "Walker" on the trek west after losing her wagon and animals, Tessa White buried her parents on the way to making a fortune; she lost everything she owned. She manages to make it to San Francisco Plaza near Lucky Monroe's gambling tent. Although he prefers to ignore her as Lucky knows she is bad for business if she remains where she is; he helps the waif anyway.

Tessa swears she will pay him back, but Lucky prefers she leave and forget the debt. He offers her passage anywhere, but she rejects his offer. Instead Tessa says her home cooked meals will sell and increase his business. To his shock, it does. Still he wants her so he wants her to leave as someone as virgin pure cannot live in purgatory. However, trouble comes not from the obvious sources, but a jealous brothel owner Delilah and Lucky's refusal to accept what his heart tells him.

This is an entertaining straightforward western romance in which the auricle knows what to expect as the characters are out of sub-genre casting 101, yet relishes every moment. The story line is fast-paced from the first confrontation between the gambler and the walker over breakfast and never slows as an inferno threatens lives. Fans will enjoy this fine historical made fresh with tidbits on walkers and the city during the Gold Rush.

Harriet Klausner

I read the reviews before I bought this book and I ignored the whining about it not being San Francisco accurate. WHO wants to read detailed descriptions about San Francisco mud? Not this reader.

It was accurate enough for me. I felt like I could picture it all and that worked for me.

What DIDN'T work for me was this heroine! Almighty Lord in Heaven this girl was the epitome of too stupid to live! I had to skim when she was acting all stupidly "headstrong" defending whores saying that could have been her. No one, even a good hearted person would say that could have been them.

The hero was just a horny guy who wanted to taste the sweet nectar flowing from her heated core (I almost quit reading that. I mean, I know sex scenes are cheese central in romance novels but come on! Nectar?)

The hero may be determined and honest but she has ZERO common sense. This girl has a single marble rattling around in her head and it's not touching anything to make her smart.

Trust me, you'll roll your eyes so much you'll worry their about to pop out. Don't buy this book. If you just like to read for sex then there's not even a LOT of that. There's 2 very short scenes and a detailed description of the hero quenching his thirst on the heroine's nectar. That's not sexy being described ridiculously as nectar.

Pass the book on by like scenary

Tessa is the kind of spunky heroine who is not afraid to take a chance. And Lucky, the gambler, is the kind of hero I like to read about. Puzzled by the spunky Tessa, she will lead him a merry chase before he finally catches her. If you want to read about the California gold rush, this well researched novel will take you there. Get ready to smell the air and walk the land. Thank you, Ms. Barbieri for such and enchanting tale. This is a book to read and reread.

Tessa White lost everything on the trail to California and ended up walking the rest of the way (who fed her and helped her?). At the end of the trail in San Francisco she manages to collapse right in front of the most handsome and available gambler in the city - Lucky Monroe (how good is that?). Lucky tries to send her home to Iowa but our stubborn independent miss is determined to work off her debts and convinces Lucky to let her cook for his gambling customers, certain they're dying for a home cooked meal.

Of course there's the evil evil brothel owner Harley Knox who wants Tessa to enhance his stable of imported French whores (awfully smart of him to know Gold was 'gonna' be discovered in 1848 and bring those women all the way from France just in the nick of time...), as well as Lucky's slutty girlfriend/barmaid Delilah who resents the growing attraction between the two. Original no? Not.

Ok, ok, so it is just a romance and I should be more forgiving on the details, but how hard is it to do a little fact checking or read up on your period before writing a book? Where was all that infamous San Francisco mud? Why did it seem like the gold fields were just outside of town when even now with cars and roads its a looooong day's drive to get there? In a town filled with tents and shanties how did Harley have a house with mahogany floors and a marble staircase? WTF was it with Lucky talking all the time about just buying a ticket home to Iowa for Tessa (Greyhound maybe?). She's just come off the trail - that would be the trail that takes all summer and you barely made it over the mountains before winter hit (remember the Donner Party?). It has to be late Fall/early Winter by the time the story begins so who is going to head back East on a wagon train that time of year? And they sell "tickets"? Is he going to send her back via ship to the East coast? No that won't work because there's still how to get her to Iowa. Basides I think most of the ships that came into the harbor had a hard time getting back out - all those sailors deserting for the gold fields.

Don't we expect cohesion and reality in our contemporary novels? Wouldn't you be rolling your eyes if a heroine in the 1980's whipped out a cell-phone and starting sending text messages? That is what I'm looking for in a book and not just wall-paper dressing with let's say for example "J" taking a knife she's got hidden under her mattress to chop off "R"'s hair instead of the pair of shears any well-bred young miss would have in her sewing basket. Let alone how she got all that covered in head to toe blood off of him with nary a basin of water in her room.

Sorry, I went OT with a small poke at another book/author. Back on topic - I found this book slow paced and predictable with not even enough sex or purple prose to make it fun. No pots of honey here. If you're looking for a quick easy read with a simple story in a wall-paper historical setting this might be the book for you. If you'd like some more realism and meat to your Gold Rush story I highly recommend Gwen Bristow's fabulous Calico Palace.